Creating Art for my living is what I do!
Watch the artwork evolve and see how I juggle real life and creativity as a working artist!
Along with my Artist husband, Stephen Filarsky, we built our Art Studio from a 1910 house. Here, I specialize in fine art portraits of adults, children, horses and dogs in oils, watercolors, pastels and graphite.Join me on my blog as I work in my creative space and share life on my mini farm and studio with you!

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Murals on Kitchen Cabinets

Painting murals is not new to me. From my teens on up, I have painted scenes on walls, doors, commercial window displays and traveling circus trailers. (really!) In an earlier post you saw this mural below...now see the rest of the project completed above it!

Sometime it can go faster than painting the same thing on canvas that same size. Don't ask me why. it just does.If you have followed my "cabin in the woods" renovation you'll know that my building came with cabinets recycled from a 1950's kitchen. The wood was that hard to find solid "thwunk" type wood found in your grandma's kitchen. And it also meant it came with that dark varnished look so popular once upon a time!I removed the doors...sanded them, then painted them...more than once, with white primer.

White doors with a mural on panel below it that I painted a few years ago

White walls, white ceilings, white cabinets. Something had to change before I started moving my art supplies into it.

I went to my computer and pulling from my folder of "random traveling photos" that I accumulate for ideas, I thought.....actually I knew what I would do if I went one of two ways-mountains. Or beach. I settled on mountains :-)

Sequence of steps

So I painted in the sky, added the clouds and then started the background. It's a whole lot easier to add the foreground after the background is completed. Otherwise you will try to paint around a tree or around the leaves and it doesn't work.....at this point I tossed the pencil and just started winging it. Take a look :-)

Adding Mountains and tree details

You can see where this is headed as I added the mountains.At this point I had to decide what to do with the section to the far right. These cabinets are a little over 12 feet long and 4 ft high.My plan is to add a sink under the shorter cabinets when I eventually get the water running to the studio.You can just see where I added a white path to the far right.

Here's a closer look at the left side below after I added details

Bringing in a middle ground and foreground

A friend sent me some stunning photos of Texas bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes and I had my plan for the right hand side!

See what's been added!

DONE!

So there you have it-a soothing mountain view with birds, flowers....forgot the butterflies but hey I can add them later :-) So be brave-paint a door panel, closet doors, kitchen cabinets or anything else that strikes your fancy! And it you want to take it with you at some later date, just paint it on some lightweight plywood (birch is good) and screw it to the surface.Go paint!

Monday, April 13, 2015

So in earlier posts I shared how we have been renovating what was originally a storage shed and turning it into my silk/misc art studio! It has been a "do it as I can" project in terms of time and money but now, well, with a few small exceptions, it is ready to start moving into!

I painted a 3' x 7' mural on panel in our big studio to add under the old cabinets (scrounged from a torn down kitchen). Note my palettes of Styrofoam plates :-) Just used acrylic, water based artist's paint that you can find in the art stores for this.The far end of the small studio has a work counter and although I wanted to put it underneath, it would not fit without cutting it in half (due to counter bracing). And I did not feel like cutting holes in it to fit around electrical outlets....so under the cabinets it went!The cabinets themselves apparently came from a very old kitchen and the shed wall was reinforced with that rough OSB plywood that is a real pain to paint.

The shop size is 12 x 20 and I am just about to move into it this week. No running water yet but I have electrical so that will work until I get the waterline in. Thanks to Craigslist, I have already located a used stainless steel sink with the deepness I needed, plus all the fittings for a mere fraction of what it would have cost otherwise!

As you can see, I have gotten as far as putting in a sky. Originally the very dark, heavily varnished cabinet doors would not hold any paint until I sanded them (sigh) Now the skies are a backdrop to what other scenes or subjects I will add, which is still undecided! This is a project anyone can do on their kitchen cabinets...the laundry room...kids' doors...be bold. Painting on panels means it can be removed at any time!

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Helping others learn to see and then paint what they see (real or unreal) can be an inspiring way to plug into my creative side!Teaching some art classes at the Vance Granville Community College to both newcomers to art and those who have been in it awhile, in an open classroom environment, is a great way to tap into my dormant knowledge. Working in acrylics, watercolor, and in the case of one student-in fabric collages, they simple let their creative sides flow in class.Nowadays many use their smart phones to find images to paint from (inspiration) and in

Acrylic and watercolor

doing so follow that age old tradition of looking at work they admire and trying to emulate it.!Enjoy the creativity...the fabric/lace embellished on is below!

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Artwork! Portraits! Paintings! A WAY of LIFE!

Hey, what can I say? It really IS the greatest JOB in the world! Yes, you CAN make a living from your art. I have for 18 years. Yes, for real! And I am married to an artist (and that is his sole job, too!)Join me each day and share a day in my world.To view my portraits, visit my website and while you are visiting, pop over to Steve's site and see his plein air OILS.

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About Me

Artist entrepreneur, M Theresa Brown is a fine art portrait artist who has created portraits as her livelihood since 1990. Her areas of expertise span from realism to abstracts. She and her artist husband Steve Filarsky together are Filarsky Brown Art Studios LLC and their work can be found on line, in thousands of homes, businesses and corporate centers across the globe!